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LETTER: Sometimes, danger of a journey the better option

Published 12:47 p.m. ET June 22, 2018

First lady Melania Trump walks to her vehicle as she arrives at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland after returning from Texas. AP First lady Melania Trump walks to her vehicle as she arrives at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Thursday, June 21, 2018, after visiting the Upbring New Hope Children Center run by the Lutheran Social Services of the South in McAllen, Texas. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)(Photo: Andrew Harnik / AP)

I had to reply to the letter written by Douglas Wicks (”Immigrant children abused, neglected by parents,” June 19) regarding immigrant children being separated from their families. Wicks claims that the children and their parents should be grateful for being held by the U.S. government. In fact, he says, the parents abused their children by bringing them on such a long and arduous journey.

Under Mr. Wicks’ definition of abuse the 31 children who crossed the ocean on the Mayflower from Plymouth, England to America to escape religious persecution were definitely abused by their parents. Leaving a relatively safe place to set out for the unknown opened them up to the dangers of the sea, a wild land, disease, hunger and death. Those pilgrims were quite abusive by Mr. Wicks’ way of thinking.

Then, of course, there were our own pioneers, dragging their families from safe places in the U.S. to find a better life in the West. Extreme weather, drought, wild animals, hostile natives, all hardships faced by these people and their children. Instead of staying in a safe place, they exposed their children to these horrors. Again , by Mr. Wicks’ definition, abuse.

So, yes Mr. Wicks, throughout history, desperate people have done and continue to do desperate things, putting themselves and their children in danger. That doesn’t make them child abusers. Of course, we can’t have completely open borders and our laws must be respected. However, I have compassion for the families trying to come here and I understand their desperation.